St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-12-10
GENTLE WILLIE erwin.
Uncle William WEIGH Doesn't Like Him
Neither Does he Villas.
A VERY BITTER INVECTIVE.
An Unusual Procedure in the District
Court Yesterday in "Cele- g.
brated Case"

tanned an order to compel the state to
show cause why an order should not be
issued compelling the Madison Mutual
Insurance company to furnish its books
that he might have them in order to get
evidence so that he could file a bill of
particulars in regard to the evidence
upon which his charges against Post
master General Villas were based. After
reading several affidavits to show that
these books and files in the case
of Seth Bartlett against the officers of
the insurance company, in which the
same charges had been made, had been
distracted from the court house at Mad
ison, he said: This case had been set
tied by stipulation after W. F. Villas
had gone to plaintiff and told him that
s.. 900 would be spent by the defense,
and that he would see that he was
ruined. / want the court" continued
Mr.. Welch. Ito understand that
l am sincere in my efforts
to obtain these papers. have spent in
the neighborhOOd of $500 in trying to
secure them, and l must have them.
They have been spirited away. and be-
lieve that there is no one who has any
earthly interest in destroying them eX-
cept William F. Villas and the members
of the Madison Mutual Insurance com
pany, who are implicated with him, and
these men. after they have destroyed all
traces of the crime-like Hannibal,
burning everything behind them in
their retreat-they follow lie here to
this state with eight indictments, seven
of them based upon one statement OF
fact"
In the course of his remarks, in which
he poured out the hottest kind of vitu-
peration upon every one connected with
the case. from Erwin and the members
of the Madison Mutual Insurance COM
pany to Mr.. Hidden, the young man
whom County Attorney Davis has re-
Gently taken as partner, Mr.. Welch
said: And Mr.. Booth, too, who COM
mitted perjury before the grand jury in
order that these Indictment might be
brought against me, he is part of the
conspiracy, though he has since made
the most abject apology 10 me through
Mr.. Hidden. As to Mr.. Villas |
do not see how he can be greatly
injured by granting this stay of
proceedings. He does not seem to have
suffered from the hands of the admins
tratiOn. believe in integrity in public
office. | have fought for fifty years for
what ] believed to be right. | have
made these charges against Mr.. Villas
because ] considered it was my duty to
myself and to my neighbors to do so,
and | believe that the state will protect
one of its true and loyal citizens"
County Attorney Davis, replying,
said: Il shall try to give a plain state
ment of facts in this case, relieved of
some of this rubbish that the defendant
has seen fit to throw about it by his atfi-
daVit. 1t is now something more than
a month since the grand jury found an
Indictment against Mr.. Welch
and l asked for bill of speci-
fications in case he elected to
prove the truth of the statements
that he was charged with having
printed. a stay of twenty days was
| granted, and little later stay of
fifteen days, and to-day the time for the
| filing of the bill of specifications has eX
PRED But now Mr.. Welch GENES. be-
| fore the court asking that the state take
the burden of furnishing the material
! by which he proposes to subSta1tiate
| his charges. He says in his affidavit
! that he believes that the books of the
Madison Mutual Insurance company
have been destroyed, and then he asks
stay until they are found. This simply
| leaves the state p0werleSs to prosecute
the case. Mr.. Welch may have had
some personal quarrel with some of the
members of the Madison Mutual Insur
ance company, but this is of no interest
to the state. Mr.. Welch has made
charges upon which he had reason to
expect Indictment would be brought.
| 1t was his duty to know where the ma
| terial for Subtantiating these state
ments was before he made Them
! In denying the motion Judge LOchren
said many men had suffered for want of
| evidence. 1t did not appear that the
books and papers of the insurance COM
pany had been destroyed since the mat
| ter was published upon which the in
dictments were based and Mr.. Welch
| should have known that these dOcu-
mentS were in existence before he made
| the statements. With regard to the pa
| pers in the Bartlett suit he did not see
| how they would be competent evidence.
| He thought that he would discharge the
! order to show cause and give the de-
PENDANT until the 10Th inst. to file his
! bill of particulars.
The county attorney. F. F. Davis,
! then commenced arraigning the priS-
Oners who had been waiting in the
court room during the argument, when
| he was interrupted by Mr.. Welch. who
said, Il have another document which |
wish to read to the court" This dOcu-
ment proved to be an order upon Bael
f. Hutchinson and William Erwin to
show cause why they should not be eX-
Guided as attorneys for the state from
any further part or interest in the case
and the whole matter confined simply
to County Attorney Davis. In his aft
davit Mr.. Welch declares that the
charges against him are instigated
by Bael E. Hutchinson, a
of bo Int
Welch charges with completely in the
wrecking of the Madison Mutual Insur-
ance company, and by William Erwin,
of st. Paul. and that they are paid for
their services by outside parties. Which
proceeding, he continues, lis to the
manifest scandal of pure administra-
ton of the criminal laws of the state"
He also charges "Bilr' Erwin, in
confederation with Hutchinson and At
torney General Villas, with having pub
lished in the st. Paul GLOBE scandal
Gus statement to the effect that he had
been indicted in 1882 for debauching
young woman, and that this
statement was published just
after his son had started for
Detroit, Mich, to be married, for the
conclusion he asked that an order be
issued by the court excluding both
Erwin and Hutchinson from taking part
in the case, for he would refuse to sit in
the court room with such man as
Erwin.
Judge Lochren said that such an order
was unheard of and that he could not
grant it hearing; that there would be
abundant opportunity to debar Mr..
Erwin from the case when he appeared
il court.